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I doubt you'll ever agree on what was said as being racist or not. Personally, I could not see into his heart and mind and know what he was truly feeling when he talked about growing up in the south as "not being that bad". At face value, I would not consider those racist comments. Insensitive maybe? Sure. But what he said will be interpreted differently depending on the listener's personal set of experiences.

If he was merely relating HIS recollection of growing up...then he can't be wrong. Perhaps his recollections are wrong, but that's a different story, to be told by those who were there. Not you or me.

I doubt you'll ever agree on what was said as being racist or not. Personally, I could not see into his heart and mind and know what he was truly feeling when he talked about growing up in the south as "not being that bad". At face value, I would not consider those racist comments. Insensitive maybe? Sure. But what he said will be interpreted differently depending on the listener's personal set of experiences.

If he was merely relating HIS recollection of growing up...then he can't be wrong. Perhaps his recollections are wrong, but that's a different story, to be told by those who were there. Not you or me.

Perhaps HIS recollections of HIS life are totally accurate.

Anyone here try to sheild their children from the harsh realties of life??

If so.....you a racist!!!!!

Like I said earlier, it's just a word you left wing progressives use to denigrate someone that scares you!!

You asked him to tell you why he thought Barbour was a rascist. He presented his argument but you, instead of either arguing against what he said or agreeing with it, you bring up Obama? Weak.............. And we wonder why threads get so far off topic.

We have never seen any evidence presented Cotts. Just some comments he supposedly made, but no one has posted those comments. Or any proof that he said anything that was "racist". AS RK said... were waiting... that's whats weak... branding someone racist with no evidence. An old, tired tactic of the left.

Haley Barbour's comments were just made last year, which is what makes them all the more stunning. He may have grown up in the 1960s, but I would have hoped he would have grown more socially aware over the years, and not come out in support of an organization with a history like the White Citizens Council. There is no way I could expect a man like that to represent my best interests, so how could I vote for him.

I don't know anything about the White Citizens Council but it doesn't sound much different than say the The Black Congressinol Caucus. Just labels.

As a former landowner in east-central Miss and someone who has harvested thousands of doves, dozens of deer and few ducks in Miss, most had to do what they had to do in the 60's.

When the public school system was intergrated, white citzens across the state set up private schools. The private sector financed their schools and tax funds went to support the public system.

The Gov. spent millions in new state of the art schools. Yet, thier performance is still not what was provided by the private sector.

A classic case of Government to big because a forced merger of cultures would have been extremely violent and counter-productive.

Public schools across the south are a mess and the government doesn't know how to fix it they just know how to throw money at the problem.

Where there is a will, there is a way and the solution doesn't lay within the Fed Gov. when it comes to education!

I never used the word “horrific” to describe his comments. They were not. But, comments don’t have to be horrific to support racism. His praised the White Citizens Council for their role in the integration of Yazoo City schools, as if they had been a force of good during the civil rights struggle. When asked why Yazoo City was perhaps the only municipality in Mississippi that managed to integrate the schools without violence. Barbour said:

“Because the business community wouldn’t stand for it,” he said. “You heard of the Citizens Councils? Up north they think it was like the KKK. Where I come from it was an organization of town leaders. In Yazoo City they passed a resolution that said anybody who started a chapter of the Klan would get their ass run out of town. If you had a job, you’d lose it. If you had a store, they’d see nobody shopped there. We didn’t have a problem with the Klan in Yazoo City.”

What he continently omitted was they did the same to anyone, black or white that signed the petition for integrating schools in Yazoo City. Council members fired signers of the petition, or prevailed upon other white employers to fire them. Of course they denied using any economic force or physical intimidation. All they did was “provide information” (a full-page ad in the local paper listing the “offenders”); spontaneous public feeling did the rest. As a result, 51 of 53 blacks who had signed the original integration petition withdrew their names and/or were run out of town, had businesses boycotted, and insurance policies cancelled. One member of the Yazoo City Citizens Council, explained, “if a man works for you, and you believe in something, and that man is working against it and undermining it, why you don’t want him working for you—of course you don’t.”

The White Citizens Council also established a private, segregated, white only academy which still exists today, so their white kids would not have to go to public schools with black kids.

Now, this same organization of “community leaders” did go on record opposing the Klan by saying, “your Citizens Council was formed to preserve the separation of the races, and believes that it can best serve the county where it is the only organization operating in this field.” Sounds like a swell bunch of guys. Is it any wonder Barbour admires them so much?

Then, there was the picture of Barbour that appeared on the website of the Council for Conservative Citizens (successor organization to the White Citizens Council). The website also contained such articles as “In defense of racism.” The picture was taken at one of the group’s fundraising barbeques. When there was media uproar over it, Barbour denied any knowledge of CCC’s racist activities. But, he also refused to ask them to remove of his photo from the site.

Then, early last year, there was his response to the uproar over how the history of slavery was conspicuously omitted from Virginia’s Confederate History Month. Barbour’s comment was, “To me, it's a sort of feeling that it's a nit, that it is not significant, that it's not a—it's trying to make a big deal out of something doesn't amount to diddly". I wonder if it didn’t amount to “diddly” to those who were enslaved?

Based on this, how could I vote for Haley Barbour? In my place, would you? Do you think he would help me, or help those that would hurt me?

I never used the word “horrific” to describe his comments. They were not. But, comments don’t have to be horrific to support racism. His praised the White Citizens Council for their role in the integration of Yazoo City schools, as if they had been a force of good during the civil rights struggle. When asked why Yazoo City was perhaps the only municipality in Mississippi that managed to integrate the schools without violence. Barbour said:

“Because the business community wouldn’t stand for it,” he said. “You heard of the Citizens Councils? Up north they think it was like the KKK. Where I come from it was an organization of town leaders. In Yazoo City they passed a resolution that said anybody who started a chapter of the Klan would get their ass run out of town. If you had a job, you’d lose it. If you had a store, they’d see nobody shopped there. We didn’t have a problem with the Klan in Yazoo City.”

What he continently omitted was they did the same to anyone, black or white that signed the petition for integrating schools in Yazoo City. Council members fired signers of the petition, or prevailed upon other white employers to fire them. Of course they denied using any economic force or physical intimidation. All they did was “provide information” (a full-page ad in the local paper listing the “offenders”); spontaneous public feeling did the rest. As a result, 51 of 53 blacks who had signed the original integration petition withdrew their names and/or were run out of town, had businesses boycotted, and insurance policies cancelled. One member of the Yazoo City Citizens Council, explained, “if a man works for you, and you believe in something, and that man is working against it and undermining it, why you don’t want him working for you—of course you don’t.”

The White Citizens Council also established a private, segregated, white only academy which still exists today, so their white kids would not have to go to public schools with black kids.

Now, this same organization of “community leaders” did go on record opposing the Klan by saying, “your Citizens Council was formed to preserve the separation of the races, and believes that it can best serve the county where it is the only organization operating in this field.” Sounds like a swell bunch of guys. Is it any wonder Barbour admires them so much?

Then, there was the picture of Barbour that appeared on the website of the Council for Conservative Citizens (successor organization to the White Citizens Council). The website also contained such articles as “In defense of racism.” The picture was taken at one of the group’s fundraising barbeques. When there was media uproar over it, Barbour denied any knowledge of CCC’s racist activities. But, he also refused to ask them to remove of his photo from the site.

Then, early last year, there was his response to the uproar over how the history of slavery was conspicuously omitted from Virginia’s Confederate History Month. Barbour’s comment was, “To me, it's a sort of feeling that it's a nit, that it is not significant, that it's not a—it's trying to make a big deal out of something doesn't amount to diddly". I wonder if it didn’t amount to “diddly” to those who were enslaved?

Based on this, how could I vote for Haley Barbour? In my place, would you? Do you think he would help me, or help those that would hurt me?

Blackstone, you are aware that many parents don't want thier children falling into the Hip Hop Culture trap, don't you?

In the south, you won't see to many well adjusted white teenagers in the public school system. There are some but they are overwhelmed by the Hip Hop thing. They way they dress, act and speak is not what one sees at the all white private academys.

I don't know anything about the White Citizens Council but it doesn't sound much different than say the The Black Congressinol Caucus. Just labels.

Did the Black Congressional Caucus ever threaten whites with economic or physical harm just because they wanted an equal education? Did they ever incite blacks to run whites out of their homes and towns? Did they ever pressure and intimidate whites not to vote? Were they formed to "preserve the separation of the races?" Those are the things the White Citizens Council did to blacks.

Blackstone, you are aware that many parents don't want thier children falling into the Hip Hop Culture trap, don't you?

In the south, you won't see to many well adjusted white teenagers in the public school system. There are some but they are overwhelmed by the Hip Hop thing. They way they dress, act and speak is not what one sees at the all white private academys.

I veiw it more as a preservation of culture than hate.

There was no hip-hop culture in the '60s. There were just parents that wanted their kids to have access to an equal education. That is what black kids had been denied. So, if it’s not about racism, why not open up the private academies to all children regardless of race? Plenty of black parents don't want their kids "overwhelmed" by the hip-hop culture. Private academies can control dress codes and behavior, so why restrict it to whites only?

Did the Black Congressional Caucus ever threaten whites with economic or physical harm just because they wanted an equal education? Did they ever incite blacks to run whites out of their homes and towns? Did they ever pressure and intimidate whites not to vote? Were they formed to "preserve the separation of the races?" Those are the things the White Citizens Council did to blacks.

It was a lot more than "just labels."

You say, "preserve the seperations of the races" and I say, "preservation of culture".

I've been all over the southeast and have spent all but a couple of years here. In 2011, there is no such thing as seperation of the races. We all work together in daily life. Dine at the same restaurants, attend any school WORTH attending, sporting events where white folks wear jerseys often of black athletes, hospitals, thearters, you name it.

But, a parent has the right to send thier kids where they want to for school. And, if that parent doesn't want thier child overwhelmed with Hip Hop and the lifestyle that goes with it, then more power to them.